Peter Randolph (minister)

Born into slavery in Virginia, he was freed in the will of his owner but this request took three years and legal proceedings to be honored.

He spent four years in Richmond, Virginia, after the end of the Civil War, before moving back to Boston.

[4]: 113 Aided in settling by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Randolph initially lived in Beacon Hill, Boston, where he attended the Belknap Street Church, led by Leonard Grimes.

[1] For instance, in 1852 Randolph visited Saint John, New Brunswick,[3] where he did missionary work with fugitive slaves.

[5] The work was promoted in The Boston Transcript by its editor Daniel Haskill, and a second edition was published that year.

[2] Randolph's request to serve as a chaplain in the Union Army during the American Civil War was rejected because there were no open spots.

As the church's first African-American pastor, Randolph instituted several reforms including giving women a greater role.

Peter Randolph: the Southern Question Illustrated and Sketches of Slave Life,[1] in 1893,[4]: 114  a third edition of his earlier publication that was well over twice as long, with 220 pages.